Standardized mounting rails developed by the United States military have made it possible to mount a wide variety of accessories to a firearm. Weapon-mounted firearm accessories have become an important tool for military, police, militia, and civilian firearm users. Examples of popular firearm accessories include targeting devices, such as LASER sighting devices, and target illuminators, such as flashlights. Standardized mounting rails allow a single firearm to be reconfigured to meet certain mission specific needs. In this way, a firearm can be configured for mission specific needs. The primary limitation is the amount of available space on the mounting rails of a particular firearm. Accordingly, accessory arrangements that reduced the space required on mounting rails would be desirable. Additionally, any improvements with respect to ease of access to operational controls of accessories would be desirable.
Conventional long guns and handguns require sighting by raising the firearm to the eye and placing the firearm sight mechanism between the shooter's eye and the target. With long guns, the forestock has a hand receiving surface that is typically parallel to the gun axis. The forestock would typically lay in a diagonal line across the shooters palm transversing the hypothenar eminence and being supported by the Palmaris brevis palm muscle. This is ergonomically comfortable as the forward hand needs to support a substantial portion of the weight of the rifle where the butt of the rear stock is abutted against the shooter's shoulder.
So called “laser sights” allow aiming a firearm by positioning a laser “spot” on a target, the spot generated by a laser mounted on the firearm. Utilization of laser sights permit aiming and sighting the firearm without having to raise the firearm to eye level as is required with traditional gun mounted sights. Indeed, for long guns, or intermediate length weapons, keeping the gun level below the eye level and not abutting the shoulder rest offers allows flexibility in holding and firing the weapon. Moreover the weight of the long gun is more easily carried and can be held for a longer sustained amount of time in a position below shoulder height, for example at waist level or slightly higher.
The long guns known as modern sporting rifles (“MSR”) that are semi-automatic and gas operated are extremely popular, particularly those known AR15's. Such MSRs often have Picatenny rails for mounting accessories at the forestocks, above, below, and on the sides of the forestocks. Recently it has become popular to remove or otherwise utilize the MSR without the rear stocks; these firearms have typically been called AR pistols. Such AR pistols do not have the rear stocks and butts to abut the shooters shoulder, thus using conventional optical sights positioned between the shooter's eye and the target will be more unsteady than a normal long rifle with a shoulder butt.
A laser sight specifically designed for a long gun and accommodating AR pistols would be welcome.